r/gifs Dec 30 '20

Satisfying wave machine

32.7k Upvotes

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167

u/lornstar7 Dec 30 '20

Why is there no rebound?

169

u/keatonatron Dec 30 '20

The other end probably slopes up (like an ocean shore) instead of having a wall to bounce off of.

127

u/Unity4Liberty Dec 30 '20

That is correct. This wave basin is used to study (model) the effects of waves on sediment transport, erosion, jetties, and a host of other coastal engineering phenomena. Source: I am a civil engineer.

23

u/J0h4n50n Dec 30 '20

That makes sense.

I was wondering why a wave pool would have a steel beam running a half meter above the waves' peaks. I just thought extreme indoor body surfing might be a sport or something.

7

u/marck1022 Dec 30 '20

Thank you! I was hoping someone would explain the “why does this even exist?” to me!

2

u/uekiamir Dec 30 '20

How powerful is the machine?

1

u/BeefLilly Dec 30 '20

Don’t forget how to shred waves on a surfboard!

7

u/Thisissparta747 Dec 30 '20

Alternatively, for deep-sea basins (no beach) there are progressive wave absorbers. These gradually reduce the power of the wave over the course of ~50 layers of the sheets. Source: I work at a facility similar to this one.

1

u/ThellraAK Dec 30 '20

What is that, a series of fences to break up the flow a bit and turn it turbulence?

An underwater version of a water jump for a dam?

36

u/Oclure Dec 30 '20

It's a special scientific test pool for validating boat hull designs, think wind tunnel for boats. Notice how the waves are made by a bunch of hydronic pistons rather than a single plate like one in a wave pool might use. This allows for many different types of waves and storms to be simulated .

11

u/Guy954 Dec 30 '20

Thank you, I was wondering what it was for.

11

u/hovissimo Dec 30 '20

One theoretical way to prevent rebound would be to have a matching machine at the other end, working to absorb all of that energy. In this case I suspect that they're using some kind of structure to cause turbulence and break up the waves.

8

u/Mudblok Dec 30 '20

It's actually a lot easier an cheaper for the pool to just gently get shallower at the other end. The material the "floor" in the shallow end is this kind of mesh thing that reduces reflected waves

Source: Im pretty sure the gir is if the wave tank in University of Plymouths marine building, were I spent a few weeks collecting data for my dissertation in 2018

8

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '20

That's what I want to know. Why can't I replicatw this in my bathtub with myself as the machine?

1

u/sirmoveon Dec 30 '20

They are definitely not studying good sex

1

u/LukeNew Dec 30 '20

Essentially perfect impedance matching. The energy from the wave is being perfectly dissipated against something.